In 1875, he joined the faculty at the University of Leipzig and quickly began to make plans for the creation of a program of experimental psychology. Wundt helped to establish the field of experimental psychology by serving as a strong promoter of the idea that psychology could be an experimental field and by providing classes, textbooks, and a laboratory for training students. The formal development of modern psychology is usually credited to the work of German physician, physiologist, and philosopher Wilhelm Wundt (1832–1920). Wilhelm Wundt is considered one of the founding figures of modern psychology. Their work was called psychophysics, and it introduced methods for measuring the relationship between physical stimuli and human perception that would serve as the basis for the new science of psychology ( Fancher & Rutherford, 2011). The question of the relationship between the mental (experiences of the senses) and the material (external reality) was investigated by a number of German researchers including Ernst Weber and Gustav Fechner. This was not a new idea philosophers like John Locke had written extensively on the topic, and in the 19th century, philosophical speculation about the nature of mind became subject to the rigors of science. In all, it suggested that a science of psychology was feasible.Īn important implication of Helmholtz’s work was that there is a psychological reality and a physical reality and that the two are not identical. Such work showed that even though the human senses were fallible, the mind could be measured using the methods of science. His work indicated that our senses can deceive us and are not a mirror of the external world. German physiologist Hermann von Helmholtz (1821–1894) measured the speed of the neural impulse and explored the physiology of hearing and vision. Philosophical questions about the nature of mind and knowledge were matched in the 19th century by physiological investigations of the sensory systems of the human observer. Most often these courses taught about the mind based on the faculties of intellect, will, and the senses ( Fuchs, 2000). In American colleges and universities in the early 1800s, these principles were taught as courses on mental and moral philosophy. The work of Locke, Reid, and others emphasized the role of the human observer and the primacy of the senses in defining how the mind comes to acquire knowledge. Philosophers such as John Locke (1632–1704) and Thomas Reid (1710–1796) promoted empiricism, the idea that all knowledge comes from experience. Precursors to American psychology can be found in philosophy and physiology. The same is true for studying the history of psychology getting a history of the field helps to make sense of where we are and how we got here. Whether you are seeing a physician, talking with a counselor, or applying for a job, everything begins with a history. The conversation usually begins with a series of questions such as, “Where did you grow up?” “How long have you lived here?” “Where did you go to school?” The importance of history in defining who we are cannot be overstated. Consider what happens when you meet someone for the first time. Rather than a dry collection of names and dates, the history of psychology tells us about the important intersection of time and place that defines who we are. The history of psychology also provides perspective. Psychology is an exciting field and the history of psychology offers the opportunity to make sense of how it has grown and developed. The earliest records of a psychological experiment go all the way back to the Pharaoh Psamtik I of Egypt in the 7th Century B.C. For the sake of convenience, we refer to this as a history of modern psychology. For the purposes of this module, we will examine the development of psychology in America and use the mid-19th century as our starting point. ![]() The interested student will have no trouble finding an abundance of resources on all of these time frames and perspectives ( Goodwin, 2011 Leahey, 2012 Schultz & Schultz, 2007). These two perspectives, and all that is in between, are appropriate for describing a history of psychology. Some would start with ancient Greece others would look to a demarcation in the late 19th century when the science of psychology was formally proposed and instituted. It is always a difficult question to ask, where to begin to tell the story of the history of psychology.
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